[no subject]

An escape from prosecution, but torment goes on for
Townshend

Rock star admits he was wrong to view child
pornography on Internet and is placed on the sex
offenders' register for next five years

By Jason bennetto Crime Correspondent
08 May 2003

Pete Townshend, the guitarist of the Who, is to be
placed on the Sex Offenders Register for the next five
years after being cautioned for paying to look at
child pornography on the internet.

The announcement that the 57-year-old rock legend will
not face a criminal charge for using his credit card
to access a website containing photographs of babies
and children being sexually abused is the latest
episode in Britain's biggest ongoing police inquiry.
The investigation, codenamed Operation Ore, is likely
to see up to 6,000 people cautioned or prosecuted for
similar crimes.

Townshend's caution  issued yesterday at Kingston
police station in west London  drew criticism from
some child campaigners who said it was far too
lenient, while the man himself continued to defend his
actions and issued a lengthy statement to reporters
and photographers gathered outside his mansion in
Richmond upon Thames.

It also brings to a close four months of frenzied
media coverage and speculation about the rock star's
future.

While outwardly a caution may seem like a lenient
punishment, it does have wide-ranging implications for
Townshend and could greatly restrict his future
movement.

One consequence of being placed on the Sex Offenders
Register is that Townshend is likely to be banned from
travelling to the United States for the next five
years.

It was inevitable that the multi-millionaire would be
punished when in January he admitted that he had used
his credit card in 1999 to access the Texan based
website, Landslide Productions, which charges #21 a
month to access child abuse of the vilest kind.
Investigators have stressed the horrific nature of
some of the images of abuse, and several journalists
in Canada who were shown examples of the material
later need counselling.

Townshend's credit card details were among those of
about 6,500 British men, and a handful of women,
identified by American postal inspectors during an
investigation into the subscribers to Landslide
Productions. The details were passed on to the British
police about a year ago, who then launched a massive
inquiry to identify the offenders and bring them to
justice.

The operation hit the headlines when it emerged that
among the suspects were two police officers closely
involved in the Soham inquiry to catch the killer of
the 10-year-old girls, Jessica Chapman and Holly
Wells.

As the police worked through the huge list and
Townshend's name was discovered, it was only a matter
of time before it reached the press.

Confronted by dozens of journalists, the rock
guitarist quickly issued his defence and admitted the
crime, but said that it had been for research for an
autobiography, which includes passages about his being
sexually abused as a child, as well as a campaign
against child abuse that he had been planning for
seven years.

Police seized his computers and officers from the
Scotland Yard's Child Protection Group carried out a
four-month investigation in which they established
that Townshend did not possess any downloaded
child-abuse images.

It came as no great shock then, when Scotland Yard
announced yesterday that rather than being charged and
face a possible jail sentence, Townshend had been
cautioned for the access and payment for child-abuse
images.

As well as not downloading the images  an offence
that attracts a maximum five-year jail sentence 
other factors in his favour are that he appears to
have only made one credit card payment; he did have a
credible explanation for his actions; and he did not
have a history of similar offences.

Conscious of being accused of favouritism towards a
celebrity, Scotland Yard also stressed that they took
advice from the Crown Prosecution Service to ensure
"fairness and consistency in the handling of suspects
across London" in this type of case.

The Metropolitan Police also went to some lengths to
point out the seriousness of Townshend's actions. A
Met statement read: "The access and payment for child
abuse images is an offence, and inciting others to
distribute these images leads to young children being
seriously sexually assaulted to meet the growing
demands of the internet customer.

"It is not a defence to access these images for
research or out of curiosity."

A caution means Townshend has a criminal record and he
automatically goes onto the Sex Offenders Register for
five years. Furthermore a sample of DNA has been taken
and he has been fingerprinted and photographed. For
the next five years he must notify police of any
intention to travel abroad for eight days or more and
inform them if he changes his name or address. He will
also undergo a multi-agency assessment to determine
whether he is of any risk to children.

A spokeswoman at the American Embassy in London said
that anyone with a criminal record would not be given
a visa to travel to the United States, but they could
apply for a waiver, which is decided on case by case.
But a US source said that it was "highly unlikely"
anyone on the Sex Offenders Register would be granted
one, particularly one connected to child abuse.

Townshend yesterday issued a statement in which he
insisted police had "unconditionally accepted" his
explanation that he was looking at the site as
research for his "campaign" against child pornography.

He continued: "I accessed the site because of my
concerns at the shocking material readily available on
the internet to children as well as adults, and as
part of my research toward the campaign I had been
putting together since 1995 to counter damage done by
all kinds of pornography on the internet, but
especially any involving child abuse."

He added: "I accept that I was wrong to access this
site, and that by doing so, I broke the law, and I
have accepted the caution that the police have given
me."

But his explanation and the severity of his punishment
have not impressed many child-abuse campaigners.

A spokesman for Phoenix survivors, a group which
represents victims of child abuse, said: "We are
appalled at the leniency of the punishment Townshend
has received.

"He gave money to child molesters, which doubtless
paid for the next child-rape photo session.

"It makes little difference to what happens to us if
the sex offender is behind the monitor, the lens or
the blanket  our suffering doesn't change."

The children's charity, the NSPCC, took a slightly
more measured respond, highlighting the consequences
of being placed on the Sex Offenders Register.

But Jennifer Bernard, from the NSPCC, said that no one
should forget the suffering behind the images people
pay a few dollars to watch on their computer scenes.

"Every child seen on an internet pornography site is a
real child who is likely to have been abused time and
time again," she said.

'I accept that I was wrong to access this site'

Pete Townshend's press statement, which was posted on
his website, is given below:

"After months of investigation officers from Scotland
Yard's Child Protection group have confirmed that they
have not found any downloaded child abuse images on
rock guitarist Pete Townshend's computers. They added
that Pete co-operated fully with the investigation and
that the decision to caution was made in accordance
with the MPS Case Disposal Policy for this
investigation.

"Pete stated: 'From the very beginning, I acknowledged
that I did access this site and that I had given the
police full access to all of my computers.'

"He added: 'As I made clear at the outset, I accessed
the site because of my concerns at the shocking
material readily available on the internet to children
as well as adults, and as part of my research toward
the campaign I had been putting together since 1995 to
counter damage done by all kinds of pornography on the
internet, but especially any involving child abuse.'

"The police work closely with the internet industry
through the Internet Watch Foundation to monitor
paedophile activity and any member of the public
accidentally discovering such images should notify the
IWF through their website.

"Ironically Pete later contacted the Internet Watch
Foundation on the subject of the offensive site.

"He pointed out: 'The police have unconditionally
accepted that these were my motives in looking at this
site and that there was no other nefarious purpose,
and as a result they have decided not to charge me. I
accept that I was wrong to access this site, and that
by doing so, I broke the law, and I have accepted the
caution that the police have given me.'" 


=====
-Brian in Atlanta
The Who This Month!
http://www.thewhothismonth.com

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